Post Draft Scouting Report: Ted Karras, OG

With the interior of the Offensive Line already crowded, what will Ted Karras need to do to make this team?

NEPD Staff Writer: Mike Gerken

With their penultimate pick in the draft the Patriots took yet another Guard to add to an already crowded interior Offensive Line group. With so many players at Guard already on the roster, including another rookie drafted 3 rounds earlier, it is hard to imagine Ted Karras making the Patriots final 53 man roster. So what was it about Karras that made the Patriots think they needed to draft him over players at other positions?

Name: Ted Karras (#69)

School: Illinois (Sr.)

Height: 6’3″

Weight: 307 Lbs.

Pro Day Results

Watching interior line play is right up there with watching Safeties as one of the hardest things for me to do. Unless a Guard is pulling or is getting to the second level to block, it can be really hard to see exactly what is going on in there. I fully admit that I struggle with grading out Interior Lineman, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. While I never watched Karras specifically this year, I did catch quite a few Illinois games because I was a big fan of their Runningback Josh Ferguson. The first thing I noticed was his strength. Once he got his hands on the defender, it was over. He could manipulate where he wanted his opponent to go and consistently got his guy on the ground. Many of Ferguson’s successful runs came because of the holes Karras created. Karras does a nice job of keeping his head up and on a swivel while blocking. He showed great awareness to shed off of one block and make another. He does a nice job of playing angles. He knows the only thing he needs to do is stay between the defender and the QB in pass protection. There have been several post draft articles that have talked about his pre game ritual and that same intensity shows up on the field as well. He consistently plays to the end of the whistle and he has no issue mixing it up with defenders. Karras showed the ability to get out on screens and once again, showed good technique as he would square up on linebackers. Karras also played some Center, which gives him some position flexibility, and if we know anything, it is that BB and the Patriots love position flexibility.

Where Karras struggles is speed and leverage. He showed that he has the strength to take on the biggest of Defensive Lineman, but he struggled against smaller, quicker guys. Karras is very stiff in his lower body, showing little knee bend. This allows defenders to get under his hands and through to the Quarterback or the Runninback. Because he is so stiff in his lower body, he rarely wins the leverage battle. He made up for it with his strong upper body, but in the NFL, that will not cut it.

I think Karras is going to have a tough time making this team, but they clearly feel that the interior of the Offensive Line needs to improve. Karras will probably end up on the practice squad and maybe his toughness, strength, and intelligence will win him a roster spot down the road.

15 Responses to “Post Draft Scouting Report: Ted Karras, OG”

Last year they picked up Justin Coleman. He had an awesome 3-cone time but went UDFA through a couple other teams’ training camp or practice squad before the Pats picked him up for their 52-man roster. Coleman played well as a nickle, and in in more than 30% of their snaps (and would’ve played in more if he’d been available more games. They drafted Daryl Roberts who also looked good in camp.

This year, they’ve loaded up with promising Butler clones. Well, almost. Most of them are a smidgeon shorter than Butler (hence the UDFA), but agile, dawg, attitude, and some have punt/kick returning upside.

I guess the obvious play is to keep Butler as long as they can milk his original contract, then hope the new kids are ready to step up from the practice squad at the right time.

However, the higher risk (but high upside) strategy might be to gamble that some combination of J.Coleman/D. Roberts/J. Jones/V. Bentley/C.Jones/C.LeBlanc gives them 2-3 starters one of whom is good enough to cover a #1 WR…and trade Butler at the top of the market.

At his age (26), ability, and stats…do you think he could fetch a first round pick?

Well, the situation for a team would be:
a) trade a pick for him now and pay him after the season or
b) wait until the end of the season and sign him as a FA.
So, a team would have to value Butler playing a couple of games in 2016 enough to trade a pick for him. I don’t think any team would do that. Butler will get paid from 2017 on, that’s no question, and a team who wants to get him long-term will have to do that any way.

On the flip side, the Patriots would have to decide what’s better:
a) Butler during this year’s playoffs and a compensatory pick (3rd or 4th) in 2018 or
b) no clear cut #1 CB during the playoffs and whatever pick they can get for him in 2017.
That obviously depends on the pick they would get in a trade which I think would be a 2nd round pick at best, and even in that situation a team would have to be quite desperate. The biggest asset of a trade is the contract situation and Butler’s situation is just not advantageous enough.
In the end I think the Patriots are going to keep him this season, try to sign him during the offseason to a reasonable – which for BB means slightly below-market value 🙂 – contract, and get a 3rd round compensatory pick as the worst case scenario. I really think BB would pay a substantial salary for Butler because he did that for Revis and it worked pretty well. BB values the position because it’s crucial for his scheme, and I think Butler is just a notch below the top tier so that the price might just be low enough for BB to accept it. On the other hand, as they say, all it takes is one a**hole and one team might be willing to pay him a ridiculous amount.

Then I looked at his time in Baltimore and an article had this to say about him. Carter drew a lot of buzz early this summer during rookie minicamp and Organized Team Activities. Steve Smith Sr. even compared the 5-foot-8 Carter to Green Bay Packers Pro Bowl receiver Randall Cobb. It also mentioned that he muffed two kickoffs during preseason games, hurting his chance to make the team as a returner.
His muffing punts reminded me of Chris Harper and thought the two of them would be competing for the same position of slot receiver and the winner would be the replacement player for DA sometime down the road.
It seems from what has been said that Carter is off to the same start he had last year in Baltimore where he drew alot of buzz.

Two things that stood out to me while getting familiar with Karras I learned was One from Mike above that he has played Center. Two it has also been said that he has a nastiness to him similar to Bryan Stork. One train of thought is that they choose him to groom him as a possible backup replacement in case Stork gets another concussion that puts him on IR and has issues that prevent him from returning.
Also from what Mike said above he has the strength to take on the biggest of Defensive Lineman which our division is loaded with right now. Those things combine with that he was a 4 year starter gives me intrigue as a developmental guy. Who knows remember last year Andrews was suppose to be a developmental guy and how many games did he start in.

Some good points there, SJ.
Only way I see Karras making the roster is by beating out Andrews for the back up OC role. Other than that, I don’t think Karras has the athleticism/quickness required for OGs in Dante’s schemes.
Buest guess is, if everyone makes it thru camp healthy, Pats try to put Karras onto the PS as OC/OG depth.

There’s a school of thought that says, come September, you pick up waiver wire for positions that certain teams are really deep in…or poach their practice squad.

We’ve talked about looking at the Chiefs or Cowboys RB corps for somebody who might have been their 5th best guy, but would be one of our top 4.

With how much trade and draft capital the Pats have invested in the interior line in the last few years, there’s a risk the Pats are exposed to that this year.

One way around it is to trade away a veteran or two who weren’t going to start this year, before September comes. Josh Kline and David Andrews have starting experience. Andrews, wouldn’t fetch much as a UDFA, but his cap hit is attractive for a team with an urgent need and not much cap space.

Andrews is an interesting case. I think his upside is somewhat limiited, but he did seem to be an effective pass-blocker, while Stork seems to be effective in the running game but has lapses every game in pass protection. Normally, I would say sure, trade Andrews for a team looking for a backup center, but he may be most valuable to the Pats, especially when they go into some games with such an exclusive focus on the pass.

BB did say that with defenses loading up on penetrators from the interior that it would place a premium on interior OLinemen that could pass block. Looks like they are bringing in a bunch of them to see who wins jobs and to stock up the practice squad.

They really like to play zone schemes and slide guys one way or the other and is their strength, but when a team like Denver in the Championship game or the ’07 Giants can bring the pressure on the interior, that strength gets nullified and leaves guys one-on-one and the results have been disastrous.